The Best Sony Mirrorless Cameras

With all of the major camera companies now making full-frame mirrorless cameras, we’ve decided to address that category and have added Sony’s ɑ7 III as our pick.

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Amadou Diallo

Phil Ryan

Whether your current Sony mirrorless camera is outdated, broken, or unable to keep up with your improved photography skills, we’ve spent countless hours researching and testing cameras (including those from other brands) to help you make the best possible body upgrade.

Buying Options

The Sony ɑ6300 is a great camera for anyone looking to upgrade from an older or cheaper Sony mirrorless camera, or for experienced photographers wanting to get started in Sony’s system. Its exceptional autofocusing abilities help capture crisp, 24.2-megapixel still images and 4K video with pleasing colors and plenty of detail, even in dim shooting conditions. Its small size makes it easy to carry and its grip is more comfortable than what you’ll find on most cameras in this price range. The sturdy magnesium-alloy body is also dust and moisture resistant, so it should last and withstand wear and tear in the field. Built-in Wi-Fi lets you connect the camera to your smartphone to transfer images or control the camera remotely. However, unlike similarly priced cameras from other companies, it lacks a touchscreen.

Buying Options

Sony’s ɑ6000 is a great choice for people moving up from a smartphone, a compact camera, or a lower-end Sony camera such as the ɑ5100. This predecessor to the ɑ6300 has a lower-resolution viewfinder, uses an older autofocus system that’s a bit less versatile, and captures only 1080p video instead of 4K. It captures sharp, detailed photos effortlessly in full auto mode, and because it’s nearly indistinguishable from the ɑ6300 on the outside, it’s just as comfortable and easy to carry. Although it lacks the flippable touchscreen of our overall pick for the best mirrorless camera for beginners, it’s the best beginner option if you’re set on a Sony camera.

Our pick

This model offers the best image quality and battery life you can get in a mirrorless camera at this price, along with a tilting touchscreen, dual SD card slots, and a 693-point AF system that covers nearly the entire frame.

Buying Options

Sony’s α7 III delivers images with the sharpest detail and least noise—especially at higher ISOs—of any mirrorless camera in its price range. Its tilting touchscreen, comfortable grip, and easy-to-use controls make shooting pleasant. Plus, its battery life (710 shots per charge) and dual SD card slots are meaningful improvements over any other full-frame mirrorless camera under $2,500. Add its weather sealing, its 10 fps burst mode, and an AF system that covers 93 percent of the frame and performs as well as or better than systems found in cameras that cost twice as much, and we’re comfortable saying that the α7 III is the best full-frame camera for your money—if you’re willing to spend this much on a camera. Most people don’t need to.

We generally recommend mirrorless cameras over DSLRs because mirrorless models provide similar image quality and performance in smaller, lighter bodies. But if you’re interested in a DSLR despite those factors, we suggest you look at either of our guides to the best DSLR for beginners and the best midrange DSLR. If you’re not tied specifically to the Sony brand, read our mirrorless-camera guide, which can point you to the best cameras for the money regardless of manufacturer.

Buying Options

Our pick

This model offers the best image quality and battery life you can get in a mirrorless camera at this price, along with a tilting touchscreen, dual SD card slots, and a 693-point AF system that covers nearly the entire frame.

Why you should trust us

Amadou Diallo has written about cameras for Wirecutter since 2013, and has been a professional photographer since 2001. He’s on the faculty of New York City’s International Center of Photography, and has authored two books on photography. As a journalist, he’s reported stories for Al Jazeera, Forbes, The New York Times (now the parent company of Wirecutter), and The Atlantic.

Phil Ryan is Wirecutter’s lead camera and printer editor and is the former senior technology editor for Popular Photography, and prior to that he served as a senior camera editor at CNET. In his role at Popular Photography, he was in charge of camera and lens testing procedures and personally field-tested all of the cameras that the publication tested during his tenure, as well as many of the lenses. He has been covering mirrorless cameras since the very first models were introduced in 2008.

Why a Sony camera?

With Sony’s E 35mm f/1.8 OSS lens, our pick for a “normal”-focal-length prime, Sony’s APS-C–based mirrorless cameras are small and light enough to carry around all day. Photo: Amadou Diallo

Over several years of researching and testing for our beginner, midrange, and high-end mirrorless-camera guides, we’ve used gear from all the different camera brands. Compared with other brands, Sony cameras particularly excel in low-light performance, autofocus, and video capture.

Furthermore, Sony’s imaging sensors (although not exclusive to Sony cameras) consistently rank among the best, delivering crisp, clean detail even at very high ISO sensitivities—this makes them ideal for getting good shots in low light. The company’s expertise in image sensors is so well respected that Sony has supplied the sensors for some Nikon DSLRs as well as iPhones and Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

Sony wasn’t the first to use hybrid autofocus—that feature debuted in 2010 in Fujifilm’s F300EXR compact camera, and Sony has been using it since 2012—but the company implements it very well. (Sony has a detailed but accessible video explaining how this system works and what benefits it offers over traditional approaches to autofocus. The conclusion is that a hybrid system allows focus to be both fast and very precise.) When our beginner pick, the ɑ6000, was introduced, review sites such as DPReview found its performance to rank ahead of that of anything else in its class, and the newer ɑ6300 is even more impressive.

Video capture has long been a point of emphasis for Sony, with features such as zebra striping and manual exposure control being standard fare. The ɑ6300 and other models also include microphone inputs, features to capture footage for slow-motion playback, and, of course, the ability to shoot 4K video.

Buying Options

The Sony ɑ6300 is a great choice for anyone looking to upgrade from a beginner’s model or to jump into Sony’s system with a camera that can handle a wide variety of shooting situations. It captures impressive images in all lighting conditions. On top of that, its fast bursts with tracking autofocus help you tackle sports shooting, its weather sealing lets you use the camera in inclement weather, and its 4K video capture offers a more sophisticated experience than making movies with your smartphone.

The ɑ6300 serves up crisp 24-megapixel images with realistic, well-saturated colors and excellent detail even at very high ISO settings. Its sensor allows for 425 phase-detect autofocus points that cover virtually the entire image area. With the proper camera settings, that means you can lock focus on a moving subject, and the AF system will maintain sharp focus on your subject as it moves across the frame. Jeremy Gray of Imaging Resource calls the ɑ6300’s subject tracking ”highly impressive,” and the writers at DPReview, discussing their long-running man-on-a-bicycle test, cite performance that was “the closest we’ve seen to a 100% hit-rate in this test so far.” Conveniently, the ɑ6300’s Eye AF mode can detect when a face is in the picture and lock its focus on the eyes of the person nearest you.

Although these models are nearly impossible to tell apart, the Sony ɑ6300 (left) has a more-advanced AF system than the ɑ6000 (right), along with a higher-resolution viewfinder and the ability to shoot 4K video. Photo: Amadou Diallo

The video options on the ɑ6300 are fairly extensive for a camera designed primarily around still photography. You can capture 1080 HD video at 120 frames per second for slow-motion playback at one-fifth speed. And you can shoot 4K video at either 24 or 30 fps. Although Andrew Reid at EOSHD flags the camera’s tendency to overheat during extended periods of shooting as a dealbreaker for pro video work, he nonetheless finds the ɑ6300’s 4K image quality “simply outstanding.” You can see why in this nature footage shot by Mathieu Gasquet. A 3.5 mm socket lets you record audio using an off-camera microphone, with the option to display a handy sound-level meter on the rear screen while you’re recording.

The ɑ6300 also offers the option to capture footage in one of two wide-dynamic-range settings—S-Log2 and S-Log3, if you’re a film geek—for greater control of highlights and shadows in the editing process. (Reviewers consistently call out the ɑ6300’s in-camera 1080 footage as rather ordinary by today’s standards, recommending instead shooting in 4K and downsampling, when necessary, to 1080 in your editing software.)

With a metal chassis and moisture-resistant sealing, the Sony ɑ6300 is a good choice if you shoot outdoors in rain or snow. Photo: Amadou Diallo

The ɑ6300 has a full magnesium-alloy body capable of withstanding the inevitable dings that a camera accumulates over time. Sony also rates the camera as dust and moisture resistant, which should give more confidence to anyone who likes to shoot when the forecast gets nasty.

The ɑ6300’s electronic viewfinder offers a detailed and bright view of the scene you’re shooting, making it comfortable to view, especially over a long day of shooting. Like all electronic finders, it lets you customize the view with framing guidelines and various configurations of shooting information (shutter speed, aperture settings, and the like). You can also review images right in the viewfinder, without taking your eye away, which can be helpful on bright days when the larger LCD screen may suffer glare.

Sony’s PlayMemories Mobile app lets you transfer images or videos to your phone so you can share them without going to a computer, as well as control basic camera settings, trigger the shutter, and start and stop video recording. But it doesn’t allow you to control as many of the camera settings as the similar apps from Panasonic and Fujifilm do for those companies’ cameras.

The ɑ6300’s battery life of 350 shots per charge is enough for a casual day of shooting, but if that doesn’t seem like enough for you, get a spare battery.

For all of the ɑ6300’s advanced technology, though, it lacks a touchscreen, something that is now standard on cameras costing a few hundred dollars less. That’s been a sore point for Sony camera owners going back to the company’s NEX-series models. For touchscreen capability, you have to step up to the ɑ6500, which costs several hundred dollars more but doesn’t offer enough other improvements overall.

Buying Options

The Sony ɑ6000 is a great upgrade from a smartphone, a compact camera, or an older model for people who want to buy a Sony. On the outside, the ɑ6000 looks nearly identical to the ɑ6300, and the two cameras are more alike than different—which means that the ɑ6000 is still a standout camera despite costing about $300 less than the ɑ6300. It’s small enough for you to carry it anywhere, and it takes great images in full auto mode but lets you easily access manual controls if you choose to learn more about photography. It has the same comfortable grip as the ɑ6300, as well as a nice electronic viewfinder—something that a lot of beginner mirrorless cameras don’t have. Finding what you need in its menu system is generally easy, and the built-in Wi-Fi lets you control the camera, or transfer images to it, with your smartphone.

Even though the ɑ6000 is an older camera—it launched in 2014 to universally positive reviews—it still competes well with the best beginner mirrorless models from other manufacturers. (As of this writing the ɑ6000 is still one of the top-selling mirrorless cameras on Amazon.) However, in contrast to the ɑ6300, the ɑ6000 lacks a weatherproof body, captures 1080p instead of 4K, and has a lower-resolution viewfinder and a slightly less versatile autofocus system. If you shoot sports or action subjects, spend time photographing in inclement weather, or want to capture 4K video, consider the ɑ6300 instead.

When the ɑ6000 launched in 2014, it had the fastest autofocus system available, and it remains extremely fast. If you’re focusing on a stationary subject, the focus feels nearly instantaneous, and it does a good job of keeping up with moving subjects as well. (The ɑ6300 and ɑ6500, however, do a better job of tracking erratic movement thanks to their having 425 phase-detect autofocus points versus 179 in the ɑ6000.) Like the ɑ6300, the ɑ6000 delivers 24-megapixel images with pleasingly realistic color and excellent detail even at high ISOs, and it handles low-light shooting much better than a smartphone or most compact cameras. As with the ɑ6300, the ɑ6000’s Eye AF mode can automatically focus on the eyes of the person nearest you.

Although we link to the body-only version of the ɑ6000 in this guide, the 16–50mm lens it is often bundled with covers enough zoom range to handle a wide array of situations. While the camera body doesn’t have image stabilization built in, the lens does, and it also retracts when you turn the camera off so it takes up less room in your bag.

With 360 shots per charge, the ɑ6000’s battery life should be enough for a day of shooting, but if you shoot a lot, you may prefer to have an extra battery charged up and ready to go in your bag.

The ɑ6000 isn’t our choice for the best beginning mirrorless camera regardless of brand for a few reasons. For one, although the LCD screen can tilt, it can’t face the same direction as the lens, making selfies more difficult. (You could use Sony’s companion smartphone app to help frame and shoot selfies with this camera, but that would require two hands.) Also, the LCD is not a touchscreen, so if you’re stepping up from a smartphone, you’ll have to get used to pressing physical buttons to navigate the menus and control the camera. Video shooters will likely be pleased with the quality of the 1080 60p recording, but the ɑ6000 can’t capture 4K footage. Finally, as we discuss in the section about Sony lenses, the company’s selection of optics isn’t as extensive as other brands’.

Our pick for a full-frame Sony camera: ɑ7 III

Our pick

This model offers the best image quality and battery life you can get in a mirrorless camera at this price, along with a tilting touchscreen, dual SD card slots, and a 693-point AF system that covers nearly the entire frame.

Buying Options

We generally don’t think that most people need a full-frame camera, but if you really want one the Sony ɑ7 III is the best option at the moment. Its 24-megapixel sensor captures more than enough fine detail to make very large prints, even at the relatively high sensitivity (aka ISO) settings that lead some cameras’ images to become too noisy. Sony is able to keep noise to a minimum thanks, in part, to the fact that it put all of the sensor’s circuitry on the back of the chip, so the pixels that capture the light can be physically larger—photo geeks refer to this as “backside illumination” (BSI). In its buying guide to the best cameras under $2,000, DPReview calls out the ɑ7 III’s image quality as “fantastic” and says it’s “among the best low-light cameras on the market today.” We agree.

The physical controls on the camera aren’t overwhelming, but also give you quick access to everything you need to get to when shooting. This most current version of the ɑ7 added a joystick control to move your autofocus point around the frame without having to press any buttons first. It’s easy to find by feel so you won’t need to pull your eye away from the electronic viewfinder (EVF) to find it. Plus, that EVF has a large magnification (0.78x) so it really fills your view when you look through it. A dedicated dial for exposure compensation makes it very easy to brighten or darken the exposure when shooting in modes other than auto or full manual. The Fn button brings you to a quick menu where you can change all of the most important settings. If you want to have any particular settings one button press away, there are four customizable buttons that let you assign any of 79 functions to them, and any of the directional controls on the scroll wheel on the camera back can also be customized.

The ɑ7 III model’s tilting touchscreen makes shooting with the camera held high or low much easier. Photo: Phil Ryan

Also new to this version of the camera is the touchscreen. Although the previous version had a tilting LCD screen, it wasn’t a touchscreen. Even if you prefer to frame your subjects by looking through the EVF you can benefit because you can set the touchscreen to act as a trackpad (using the Touch Panel/Pad setting in the Setup 3 menu) so that you can slide your thumb across the screen to move the AF point. If you prefer to focus on your subject by touching the screen, as you would on your smartphone, you can also do that, or you can set it to also take the picture when you tap your subject. Other than that, you can slide to move from one image to another in playback and pinch to zoom as you would on a smartphone.

One of the biggest drawbacks to mirrorless cameras is their anemic battery life, but the ɑ7 III is among the first cameras to break that stereotype. At 710 shots per charge, it has a better battery life than any other mirrorless camera in this price range—only Sony’s latest generation, and much more expensive, cameras have a comparable battery life. No other full-frame mirrorless cameras can claim more than 400 shots per charge, not even Canon’s (370 shots) and Nikon’s (330 shots) first full-frame mirrorless models. If you’re the type of person that might not remember to charge your camera all the time, you still might want to get an extra battery, but with a full charge you’ll be able to get through your daughter’s field hockey game without running out of juice unless you use burst mode really irresponsibly.

Yet another new addition to this line of cameras are the ɑ7 III’s dual SD memory card slots. Dual card slots let you write a backup of everything you capture to a second card if you’re worried about one of those cards failing so you lose the images of a once-in-a-lifetime moment, or worse yet, images you were paid to shoot. Alternately, you can also set the camera to move from one card to the next once the first card is full, or you can save video to one and stills to another, or JPEGs to one and RAW images to another. Dual slots are definitely something that appeal more to advanced shooters and pros, but if you’re throwing down this much money on a camera, we assume that you plan to become more serious about photography if you’re not too serious already.

Dual card slots can give peace of mind by instantly backing up your shots, or just letting you keep shooting without stopping to switch cards after your first card fills up. Photo: Phil Ryan

The ɑ7 III’s autofocus system is essentially borrowed from the company’s $4,000 (body only) pro-level, sports-oriented ɑ9. Thanks to a bit more processing power, the ɑ9 slightly outperforms the ɑ7 III, but most non-pro shooters would be hard pressed to notice the difference. The ɑ7 III has 693 AF points that cover 93 percent of the frame, so even if you’re tracking a subject that gets out to the edge of the frame, you likely won’t lose focus. Most DSLRs, and even a lot of mirrorless cameras, cluster their AF points around the center of the frame, making it harder to focus on subjects in the corners of your image.

The ɑ7 III’s top burst speed of 10 fps (the Hi+ burst mode) is more than any amateur photographer needs to capture fast action, including any amateur sports. It also burns through shots really quick and ends up slowing down after about three seconds if you’re capturing both RAW and JPEGs simultaneously. If you only capture JPEGs though, you can get up to 163 shots before the burst slows.

The ɑ7 III did a good job handling a tough exposure of the George Washington Bridge shot late in the day. Photo: Phil Ryan

Low-light shooters will appreciate that the ɑ7III model’s top sensitivity setting is ISO 204,600, which will let you shoot in extremely low light, though if you’re inclined to zoom in all the way to a 100 percent view on a computer monitor to judge an image, you’ll likely find that the top setting has too much noise. Even picky shooters will likely agree that you can get extremely nice images up to ISO 25,600 with the ɑ7 III. If your plan is to share images on social media and view them on smartphones, or without taking up the whole screen, you can feel free to use the entire ISO range.

Like a lot of Sony’s other cameras, the ɑ7 III captures extremely good-looking video. It tops out at 4K capture at 30 fps and uses the full width of the sensor to capture the equivalent of 6K video that it then scales down to 4K so that there’s more detail to the scene than you get from a lot of other cameras that record 4K, including our top pick in this guide. HD footage can be captured at up to 120 fps, so you can get up to 4x slow motion if you know your way around video editing software. All of the video looks extremely nice with plenty of detail and pleasing-looking colors.

You can still buy both the ɑ7 and ɑ7 II, and although we will fully admit that they are both very good cameras, we think that the ɑ7 III is worth the extra money. For our reasoning, please see the Competition section.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

As with most cameras of this class, the ɑ7 III doesn’t have a built-in flash, so if you want to be able to add a burst of light when shooting you’ll have to buy an accessory flash. Also, like a lot of cameras, the ɑ7 III model’s menus give you a vast amount of control over what the camera can do and how it can do it, but that also means that there are a ton of menu pages. They’re pretty well-organized, but at some point you may find yourself get a little lost.

While the top burst speed of 10 fps (Sony calls it Hi+) is nice, the EVF doesn’t maintain a live preview at that speed. Instead the camera shows the last image you shot as you capture them. If you want to maintain a preview, you can slow the burst to 8 fps (aka Hi), which may make it easier to pan along with a moving subject.

We love that Sony finally included a touchscreen, but were a bit disappointed that it doesn’t let you control the menus by touch. Instead you have to use the scroll wheel/control pad on the back of the camera. This may be because Sony was concerned that you’d accidentally trigger the screen with your nose when looking through the finder, but other camera companies have solved this problem by placing a touch on/off button on the edge of the screen so you can disable it quickly and easily when you want to shoot while looking through the finder.

Should you upgrade to a new camera?

In this guide, we present the best options if you’re looking to upgrade from an older-model mirrorless camera and you’re wedded to Sony gear, either through brand loyalty or an existing collection of Sony E-mount compatible lenses.

Because Sony mirrorless cameras use an APS-C sensor, they can provide nicely blurred backgrounds for professional-looking portraits. Photo: Amadou Diallo

The pace of innovation has slowed dramatically since mirrorless cameras were introduced in the mid-2000s. Other than improving low-light performance and autofocus speeds, most upgrades focus on features that don’t necessarily improve a camera’s picture-taking abilities. Instead, newer models add faster burst rates, expanded video capabilities, touchscreens, and easier ways to get photos onto your phone. If such features matter little to your style of photography, we suggest keeping your current camera and shifting your gear resources to higher-quality lenses instead.

The rate at which new models are released has also slowed significantly. It’s not unusual for companies to go as long as two years between model upgrades, and even then, the previous model usually remains for sale alongside the new one at a reduced price (as in the case of our beginner pick, the ɑ6000). Unless your current Sony camera is broken, we recommend skipping at least one generation between models. This means that the earliest you should even consider upgrading to a newer model of the same class of camera is about three to four years.

If you’re a DSLR owner looking to jump into mirrorless and you have no lens-mount preference, take a look at our general mirrorless-camera guide to find the best camera for your needs regardless of brand.

About Sony lenses

Sony and third parties offer a number of APS-C E-mount lenses, but the selection is much more limited compared with those of rival mirrorless systems. Photo: Amadou Diallo

Sony’s mirrorless cameras suffer from a small selection of APS-C lenses: Your choices are limited to just 17 Sony-branded options or a few third-party lenses, far fewer than what’s available for mirrorless rivals—Sony has released only one new APS-C E-mount lens since 2013. And of those Sony lenses, the majority have relatively pedestrian maximum aperture ranges, so they won’t let in a lot of light.

As for naming, Sony lenses built specifically for its APS-C cameras have an “E” at the beginning of the model name. Lenses with built-in image stabilization have “OSS” (Optical Steady Shot) in their name. Sony has partnered with renowned German lens maker Carl Zeiss on a line of high-quality autofocus lenses (at equally high prices) designed for Sony cameras; these are tagged with the “ZA” designation in the model name.

Sony’s full-frame lenses, those with an “FE” label, work on the company’s APS-C cameras. Taking these lenses into account more than doubles the number of choices available to owners of our APS-C picks. But because these lenses are designed to cover the larger image circle of a full-frame sensor, they are bulkier and heavier than their APS-C counterparts.

The competition

The Sony ɑ5100 was the top pick in an earlier iteration of our guide to mirrorless cameras for beginners. It’s still a solid choice, but considering that the price of the ɑ6000, its more capable sibling, has dropped, we think it’s worthwhile to spend the extra cash for the ɑ6000’s electronic viewfinder, additional physical controls that limit the time you spend digging through menu screens, and a burst rate that’s nearly two times faster. But if your budget doesn’t have the wiggle room, the ɑ5100 will deliver the same great image quality in stills and video.

The Sony ɑ5000 represents a significant step down from the ɑ5100, with a lower-resolution sensor, a less comprehensive autofocus system, and fewer video-capture options.

Although the Sony ɑ6500 is Sony’s flagship APS-C model, for the $300 premium (as of this writing) over our pick, its benefits are not as broad as we’d like. The in-camera image-stabilization system (a first for the ɑ6xxx camera series) is the biggest upgrade, but DPReview found that its performance lagged behind that of rival camera makers’ offerings. You also (finally) get touchscreen capability with the ɑ6500, but the addition only highlights how late Sony has been in providing what has become essentially a standard feature on far less expensive cameras.

Sony has turned heads in the camera industry with mirrorless cameras housing full-frame sensors, a spec usually available only on much larger, heavier DSLRs. The Sony α7– and α7R-series cameras feature full-frame sensors with resolutions between 24 megapixels and 42 megapixels. The α7S and α7S II have full-frame sensors that allow video shooters to capture 4K footage in unbelievably low-light scenes. These are groundbreaking cameras, as they put pro-level DSLR resolution in a mirrorless-sized package. And to address a long-standing criticism, Sony has begun steadily adding full-frame lenses designed for these camera mounts to its lineup: The company now has 14 FE-mount lenses, including a 24–70mm zoom and a 70–200mm zoom with fixed f/2.8 apertures, meeting the requirements of the most demanding shooters.

Sony’sα7 and α7 II both have a much shorter battery life than the α7 III, don’t have touchscreens or dual card slots, have AF systems with far fewer AF points that cover a smaller part of the frame, can’t match the α7 III model’s image quality (especially at high ISOs), and don’t offer ISOs above 25,600. The α7 also doesn’t have as nice of a body design—most notably, the shutter button faces straight up and has a shallower grip, making it less comfortable to use for longer shoots. The α7 also uses a shutter mechanism that introduces more vibration, enough to diminish, to a small extent, the sharpness of the images it captures, especially if you shoot at slower shutter speeds. It also lacks image stabilization. The α7 II has image stabilization built into the body that is quite effective, but it’s not as effective as the system in the α7 III.